Chelsea financially responsible with Schurrle/Cuadrado swap

Chelsea spent this January transfer window making a couple moves. Andre Schurrle, who was rarely played under Jose Mourinho’s system, was sold to Wolfsburg for £24 million. They used the money to sign Juan Cuadrado from Fiorentina for £27 million. In a transfer window that had few big moves, they were two of the rare ones. This move is meant to be the final piece in the puzzle to make Chelsea EPL champions and win a possible treble with the FA Cup and the UEFA Champions League.

This caps off a year where Chelsea got Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, Felipe Luis, Didier Drogba and Loic Remy and only spent a net total of £100k in the summer after selling David Luiz and Romelu Lukaku mainly and sending 26 players out on loan. This winter, Chelsea made their moves while only spending a net total of £3 million.

With UEFA Financial Fair Play rules resulting in tighter restrictions for European teams, some teams must curb costs any way they can. Yeah, they found someone stupid in PSG to pay £50 million for David Luiz but that’s not Chelsea’s fault. They just made sure the check cleared. The moves being made here is setting up Chelsea to become a mainstay in the top of the EPL table along with the financial abilities to compete against the best in UEFA. Compare this to other EPL teams who seem to be spending money like bandits and/or diverting money into different facets of the organization to remain FFP compliant, this is a nice change of pace.

This team is the shining example of how UEFA Financial Fair Play rules should be followed and they are being rewarded as a result. Not only is Chelsea the gold standard in English soccer, they are the gold standard in the front offices.

(The Guardian)

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @phillipbupp

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